The Final Last Stand
by GalacticaCAG
Summary: One-Shot, set in the universe of "Days of Future Past." Describes Bobby Drake's last moments with the X-Men and with Kitty Pryde in the attempt to change the dark timeline. Rated T for descriptive violence and the author's emotional trauma. Please read and leave your thoughts in the reviews! Thanks! Update: novella inspired by this begun in March 2015: "Ripples" by GalacticaCAG.


_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own any of the characters trademarked content in this work and make no money off of its publication. I do, however, appreciate the owners lending them to me for an adventure or two._

**The Final Last Stand**

Bobby Drake had survived too many "last stands."

On Alcatraz Island, at the Institute three years later, in Washington, DC a few years after that. And then Colorado Springs. London. Dusseldorf. Sarajevo. The church near Madrid. Sarasota. Valparaiso. Anchorage. That bunker in Sierre Leone. Moscow.

Each one was a notch on the gauntlet of his uniform. Each one represented a battle survived...after a fashion, even if he didn't remember it.

This monastery in China would not become another notch. No matter what, it ended tonight.

The sounds of battle outside the inner sanctum faded into the background as he huddled next to the only thing that mattered to him when he was counting each breath. Kitty Pryde whimpered softly as she struggled to hold Wolverine's connection to the past. He reached an arm around her shoulders, pulling her gently against him, trying to lend her some of his strength even as hers waned. Her warm blood trickled slowly through Bobby's cool fingers. They both knew what they weren't saying: she had lost too much.

"Hang on, Kit," he said, his voice cracking, "Just a little longer."

Kitty made a sound, half a laugh, half a sob. "It damn well better be long enough, because I don't think I want to do this again."

He chuckled softly: she could always make him smile. Gently, he wiped a tear from her cheek and she offered him a small smile as she leaned into his touch.

His heart thudded loudly in his chest. "Kitty, you know I-" A sudden crash against Magneto's metal barrier cut him off. His head snapped around in time to see the barricade shudder under a powerful blow. It was all over outside, then.

Professor Xavier met his eyes with that piercing gaze of his. _ It was time._

Quickly, he popped up into a crouch and he heard Kitty's breath hitch. "Bobby..."

He leaned his forehead against hers. "Kitty, do you remember that night by the fountain?"

Tears streamed freely from her eyes now. "How could I ever forget?" she returned, her breath warm on his face.

He kissed her fiercely, inhaling her scent for what he knew was the last time, and she responded with equal desperation. His hands tangled in her hair as he tried to show her everything he couldn't begin to say. He broke the kiss off and looked into her deep, brown eyes.

"I should have kissed you, then. And every day after."

He stood and made steadily for the weakening section of wall. He could feel Kitty's eyes at his back, hear her sobs, and did not dare turn around: the Iceman's heart was shattering apart. He nodded tightly to the Professor and Magneto as he passed.

He took a deep breath as ice consumed his body. Snapping his hands up, a jet of ice projected from him, coating and reinforcing the failing barrier. He knew it wouldn't hold for long. There were too many Sentinels outside adding their fiery beams to the effort- and he was just one X-Man.

But Robert Louis Drake- Iceman- would stand.

Slowly, the ice peeled away and a metallic head emerged from the molten hole. He reached deep within himself and seized upon the most powerful urge in his heart: his desperate need to protect the brown haired woman behind him. Nothing else mattered. He got _**cold**_, drawing from the living ice at his very core and heaved it at the Sentinel pulling its torso into the room.

It staggered under his assault, skin peeling away as shards of ice penetrated and perforated its insides. With one last faltering effort, its arm slowly reached for him before the frigid onslaught reached its core. If a machine could hate, this one surely did as its calculating, yellow eyes flickered out.

Bobby had time for one shuddering breath before two more Sentinels knocked aside their fallen brother, faces parting to reveal the roiling heart of their incineration beams. With a grunt, he launched a sheet of ice at both. The assault of the beams was staggering, forcing him back a pace. Planting his feet, he pushed back with everything he had even though he knew it wasn't enough. Just a few more seconds.

For everyone.

For _**her**_.

As tendrils of heat washed over his chiseled form, a single tear tracked down his cheek before freezing and blowing away like frost.

_If I am going to a world without her, I'm glad I won't remember._

The heat was excruciating now and a cry was forced from his throat as his defenses began to fail. He felt a sudden, primal desire to see her face one last time. He could feel himself...melting away...as he twisted around, wreathed in flame. Desperately, his eyes sought her out.

_Kitty, I lov-_

x-X-x-X-x

In another time and another place, two young mutants bolted upright in their beds as if seared, panicked screams torn from them and echoing through the tranquil halls of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

One turned his sheets to ice; the other phased through the floor and landed on the kitchen table.

As the whole mansion woke and Charles Xavier reeled from the psionic energy, the screams turned into shuddering cries as the two remembered a moment they weren't supposed to.

A moment that had never technically happened but hurt nevertheless.

_**Author's Note**__: Wow, has it been a long time since I ventured here. Life has slowed down a couple notches, so I have gotten back into my old habit of writing for fun to keep the mind sharp. Watching the most recent movie really revived my adoration for these two characters._

_This one-shot might serve as the prologue for a larger work if there is any interest in it. I hope you all enjoyed this foray and I encourage you to leave your thoughts in the reviews._

_Warm Regards,_

_-The CAG_


End file.
